Department of Nephrology, Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200071, China.
Chin J Integr Med. 2020 Feb;26(2):83-87. doi: 10.1007/s11655-019-3210-8. Epub 2020 Jan 29.
Arsenic from environmental contamination is a risk factor for kidney disease, and the clinical use of arsenic also triggers a new concern that the potential kidney damage caused by exposure to clinical doses of arsenic trivalent. So far, the undergoing mechanisms contributing to arsenic nephrotoxicity mostly remain unclear, and universally accepted methods for preventing this complication are limited too. Ancient Chinese medical scientists recognized the toxicity of arsenic long ago, and there were some records of Chinese herbs against arsenic poisoning in ancient books of Chinese medicine. In the past decade, several herbal formulations, as well as some potentially active compounds extracted from Chinese herbs, have been employed to prevent arsenic nephrotoxicity both in vivo and in vitro and showed better therapeutic effects. The present paper thus summarizes and discusses these Chinese medicine methods in preventing such a public health problem. In addition, we call for large, well-designed, randomized, and controlled clinical trials to be performed to further assess the efficacy and safety of these potential methods of Chinese medicine against arsenic nephrotoxicity.
环境污染物砷是导致肾病的一个风险因素，而砷的临床应用也引发了新的关注，即接触临床剂量的三价砷可能会造成潜在的肾损伤。到目前为止，导致砷肾毒性的潜在机制在很大程度上仍不清楚，普遍接受的预防这种并发症的方法也很有限。中国古代医学科学家很早就认识到砷的毒性，古医书中也有一些关于中草药对抗砷中毒的记载。在过去的十年中，一些草药配方以及一些从中草药中提取的潜在活性化合物已被用于预防体内和体外的砷肾毒性，并显示出更好的治疗效果。因此，本文对这些中医药方法预防这一公共卫生问题进行了总结和讨论。此外，我们呼吁开展大型、精心设计、随机和对照临床试验，以进一步评估这些潜在的中医药方法预防砷肾毒性的疗效和安全性。
